How to Build a Victorian Gardens
The interiors of Victorian houses were known for their fussiness and crowding detail; so it was with the gardens of the high Victorian period. Labour was cheap and numerous gardeners could be employed, removing worries about whether a garden style might be labour intensive or not. The period was also marked by a passionate interest in scientific discovery and the cultivation of those plants which were being introduced from far-off countries. These two factors led Victorian gardening away from eighteenth-century debates on the aesthetics of design towards an interest in plants for their own sake, for their collecta-bility as specimens. The result was a style of garden¬ing as formal and ostentatious as gardening has ever been. Everything was kept very dressy indeed.
What the gardens of the great houses did one day, the villa gardens of the new suburbs did the next but on a smaller scale. Whereas in the eighteenth century country landowners had vied with each other for supremacy in good taste, the new one-upmanship was in the material contents and the sheer quantity of plants used in a garden.
Typical features of the period include close-shaven lawns, frequently changed bedding schemes, par¬terres, extravagantly winding paths, iron pergolas and arches, cast iron seats, urns and balustrades, and the very generous use of specimen trees at the expense of open space. Conservatories, glasshouses and vege¬table and fruit gardens were beautifully and precisely maintained. Formality was the keynote in all things, whether the garden was full of curves or straight lines. Nothing was discreet: all the work was for show.
Even specimen trees were clipped and evergreens such as holly and yew were used a great deal for the purpose. Weeping trees were especially favoured as specimens, not least of which was the weeping holly. Monkey puzzles sprouted on every lawn with a pre¬tence to fashion. Evergreen shrubberies were com¬mon and made much use of three laurels: spotted laurel, Portugal laurel and cherry laurel, largely because they withstood the sooty Victorian town atmosphere so well. Roses were the great favourite and could be trained hard. Small, perfectly-edged island beds would be cut into lawns to house speci¬mens such as a potted cabbage palm or a mass of red-hot pokers, surrounded by rings of brightly coloured annuals. Gravel paths were popular, kept perfectly clean and well raked with a rope-tile edging. Even tar¬mac came to be used for its precise looks. Urns were common and were planted rather than used as orna-ments in themselves. In short, the Victorian style can offer some unforgettable eye-opening effects.
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